MUSKEGON, MI – Over the past six weeks, the biggest unanswered question in Muskegon is what’s up with the new summer festival.

Chronicle file photoThe crowd goes wild during sunset as ZZ Top takes the stage at Heritage Landing on the first night of Summer Celebration in 2010.

The short answer is that nobody knows.

And the Lansing-based promoter says he isn’t in a position to release any information until next week.

“I have nothing to talk about at the moment,” Meridian Entertainment Group’s Kevin Meyer told The Chronicle Tuesday. “I anticipate an announcement next week. We need to wrap up some details on signing entertainment and with sponsors.”

Meyer was unwilling to say anything beyond that at this time, wanting to provide all of the details at once.

But his comment would lead the community to believe that there will be a summer event at Muskegon County’s Heritage Landing in late June or early July to replace the defunct Muskegon Summer Celebration, which ended its 19-year run after last summer’s event.

Chronicle file photoRobert Slade, 6, of Muskegon Heights plays a joke on "Bozo the Clown" during the Plumb Family Picnic at the Heritage Landing during the 2010 Summer Celebration.

Rumors over the past weeks have swung from a 10-day event being planned, to no festival for this summer to a scaled-back five-day affair. The festival details seem to change on a daily basis, according to local officials involved in its planning.

Chronicle file photoA summer festival in Muskegon has included Fourth of July fireworks over Muskegon Lake.

MEG was to be the promoter, taking the financial risk for the event. Meyer and his company had been the entertainment booking agent for Summer Celebration for many years and knows Heritage Landing and the Muskegon market well.

Details of this summer’s event were to be announced in early March. That deadline passed more than six weeks ago. The frustration of not knowing has been building over the past weeks, leading to some angry music fans and local festival supporters.

“As for the summer event, we don’t know about it yet,” Muskegon County Community Development Director Bob Lukens told a county tourism advisory committee Tuesday. “Time is ticking away, quickly. Hopefully we will have some information next week.”

Downtown Muskegon Now Manager Andrew Haan is a member of the county’s tourism advisory committee and the new local festival board.

“Nobody in this county knows what is going on,” Haan told the tourism group in reference to all of the festival decisions being made by MEG.

But everyone wants information, Lukens told The Chronicle.

“We get calls and calls every day at the CVB and we are not able to tell people what’s going on,” Lukens said. “We don’t know.”

Besides calls to the tourist bureau, music fans and potential festival-goers have contacted the Muskegon Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce and even MLive.com’s Muskegon hub asking for festival details. And through Facebook pages such as The Muskegon Chronicle, the clatter for what’s going on has raged online.

Tim Lipan

Tim Lipan is the acting head of the new local festival board. That group has met twice in past weeks to try and get a handle on what’s going on, if anything, for this summer.

“Our advisory board met a couple of times to discuss the options for a new festival,” said Lipan, long associated with entertainment booking for the old Summer Celebration. “We want to give Meridian Entertainment some input and advice. I don’t know much more than that. I have been waiting to hear from Kevin.”

Plans were being readied for a media event this Friday to announce the details of the new festival but that has been delayed, sources said.

“Frankly, I am not as concerned about the lack of communications on the festival as some others,” Lipan said. “In the rock ‘n roll business, things are not firm until there is a signature on the dotted line and money exchanges hands. That’s rock ‘n roll.”

Lipan said personally he doubts a 10-day event could be pulled together at this point. But he said amazing things can happen if sponsors remain committed and an entertainment lineup can be nailed down. The community will rally around a new event at Heritage Landing, Lipan said.

“We are recommitting our community resources for Meridian down the road,” Lipan said of the local festival board’s position.

The community assets include use of the county’s Heritage Landing, city services, community leadership, citizen volunteers and the Summer Celebration equipment, now owned and controlled by the community foundation, he said. However, no formal contract for Heritage Landing has been signed but the festival dates remain available on the county schedule, Lukens said.